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Recovery and such

I swore awhile back that I’d cut way back on posts about my service-related health problems and how they affect my life. Too much repetition is boring and I thought I’d end up sounding like I was whining or something. And then I thought hey, it’s my blog isn’t it? Why shouldn’t I write about how lousy I feel? That’s what personal blogs are all about, right? Telling folks about how lousy you feel?

Okay…maybe not only about how lousy you feel but I’m getting older and I can’t help myself. Anyway…

Some of you may recall that last August I ended up in the hospital as a result of having one of what I call “my episodes”. It’s physical, it’s service related and not something I care to describe at the moment but I will state for the record that because of what I went through last August, I know know what it’s like to be a woman in hard labor. And for those women out there who immediately scoffed at that last sentence I say this…

…my wife would agree with me without reservation. Feel free to ask her.

I’ve had these episodes for many years now and they suck–big time (sorry, only way I can describe it). But things always passed (pun intended) one way or the other. Now, due to certain type of surgery I had back in 2009, things can only pass one way and not the other and when the only way out shuts down due a virus, bacteria infection, stomach flu or many of the other factors that can shut down the small intestine, that’s when these episodes occur. And I can heave for hours and nothing ever comes up.

Did you know the stomach can accumulate over two liters of contents per day even without eating or drinking?

As I said previously, these episodes usually pass once things open up for business again but last August, they didn’t and that’s what put me in the hospital. Now I had another episode two weeks ago this past Sunday. And thankfully, things eventually passed like they used to do but it’s taken a lot out of me and recovery has been slow. And I’ll freely admit that I was a bit more apprehensive about it than I tend to be for reasons I’m sure you can understand. My local VA medical facility is a long way away and it seems even farther away when these episodes occur.

No real conclusion to this post and no particular reason for it except maybe for getting things off my chest. You can take it as you will. I’m finally feeling more what passes for normal these days so that’s a good sign. I’m eating smaller portions at mealtimes since the latest episode and eating small (more or less) healthy snacks more often than I usually do which keeps the ever present nausea down to something I can more easily deal with, and that’s good too.

So it’s keep on keeping on and all that. Nothing else I can do, right? Life is worth living and live it I shall!